The Biscayans convert the vallies, and the leas rugged parts of their mountains, to the greatest agri cultural use of which they are susceptible. But the farmer has to contend with a stubborn soil, which only by the unsparing use of manure affords him an abundant harvest. For centuries the fields have been plentifully supplied with lime, yet little alteration in many instances follows ; and, were it not for extra ordinary exertion, nothing except brush-wood and briars would spring. The mode of turning up the earth, which is detailed by the acute and intelligent Bowles, is extremely rude and laborious. An iron pronged instrument is forced into the ground by the united power of three or four persons, and large pieces of turf turned over by mere manual power. These are afterwards broken in pieces, and the clods beaten with wooden mallets : holes are dug, and the grain sown in them. The steepness of the moun tains, added to the stubbornness' of the soil, is a great obstacle to agriculture, insomuch, that the consump tion of the lordship exceeds its produce ; and the in come from land, deducting all charges, amounts to no more than two per cent. There is abundance of good fruit in Biscay, and wine is made for home con sumption. An indifferent kind, called Chacoli, is procured from a mixture of grapes, and until it is consumed, no other kind can be sold by the vintners. The proprietors being thus secure of a market, become regardless of its quality, and it is carelessly made ; it serves, however, only during four months of the year, and the remainder of what is required for the lordship comes from Old Castile. Vineyards are numerous about Bilbao and Orduna, forming the principal revenues of the gentlemen.
The number of iron mines in Biscay has led to the establishment of extensive manufactories, particular ly as the ore may be procured at a trifling expense. The mine of Somorrostro is free to the whole inhabi tants ; it is common property, and each may carry away as much as he pleases. Great quantities are conveyed from it by water-carriage ; and calculations have been made, that it does not yield less than 800,000 quintals annually. There are manufactories of anchors, cannon, and other tire arms, in different parts of the province. Copper boilers of large di mensions are fabricated at Toledo one of the chief towns of Guipuzcoa, and sheets of sheathing copper prepared at Balmuseda. Extensive manufactories of -cordage and rigging are likewise established at St Sebastian and Bilbao.
The only natural productions with which Biscay .•an supply other countries, are iron and chesnuts. Notwithstanding the abundance of the former, the profits to the proprietors are extremely inconsider able. A well managed forge does not produce above 500 ducats, each worth 4s. 8d. to its owner ; and the ret :rat of some, after paying all expenses, scarcely amount to 300. Yet this is the chief article which brings money into Biscay. But the inhabitants are I obliged to be economical of fuel, and to use small forges. Were these as large as some which are em
ployed in the great iron works in other parts of Eu rope, the mountains would be stripped bare of wood, and the works interrupted for want of fuel. The preservation of ancient privileges checks the trade of Biscay ; for Bilbao, owing to the rejection of custom houses, receives no encouragement from government. A commercial company, established at St Sebastian in 1728, proved of great utility to the province : Spain immediately supplied all Europe with cocoa, at a period when tea was only beginning to be known, and it quickly fell two-thirds in price. Subsequent mismanagement, and the contraction of a great load of debt, occasioned the dissolution of the company in 1780; but, until the present war, a private trade with America was still carried on by the merchants of St Sebastian. The intercourse of the province within its own limits, and also with other parts of Spain, is greatly facilitated by excellent roads, though there is a great want of inns. Formerly the roads passed over mountains, or along the edge of pre cipices, and, in consequence of the inconvenience attending them, the three cantons united to form new ones at the public expense.
A society was established a considerable time ago, called the Sociedad Bascongada, or Biscay Society, partly, we believe, with the view of philosophical im provements ; but there arc here no extensive semina ries of literature. A school was established on a liberal plan at Vergara, in Guipuzcoa, solely at the expense of a patriotic society, where various branches of use ful study were taught. There are sixteen masters, sybo, in addition to the more ordinary parts of education, teach the French and English languages, drawing, and music. The institution is under the superintendance of commissioners, who are changed every four months ; and one of them constantly re sides in the edifice devoted to its purposes. Every four months, also, the pupils undergo a public exa mination in presence of the Commissioners, and prizes are annually bestowed on the most meritorious. Na val schools have been established in Biscay, and schools for drawing at Vittoria.
Biscay can boast of few learned men. Larrea, a celebrated lawyer, who flourishsd in the seventeenth century, was born at Vittoria ; and in that preceding it, Diego Esquivel wrote a work on the reformation of religion, which is said to contain many excellent principles, though esteemed too difficult to be con verted to practice. The language of the province is distinct from that spoken in the rest of the Spanish dominions, and its use remounts to a high period of antiquity. It is said to be soft, harmonious, and energetic, and so peculiar to the inhabitants, that Larramendi wrote a book called El imposible yen cido ; arse de la langua Bascouada : and the com mon Spanish dialect is not understood in the moun tains.